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Judith Slaying Holofernes Analysis

Decent Essays

In this essay, I will discuss the startling differences between two depictions of the story of Judith and Holofernes. “Judith with the Head of Holofernes”, 1495, created by Andrea Mantegna, is a small-scale painting that was completed during the Renaissance. The second is a Baroque painting, “Judith Slaying Holofernes”, c.1620 by Artemisia Gentileschi and is on a larger scale than the version created by Mantegna. Both artworks take inspiration from the religious story that appears in the Catholic editions of the Bible. The story is about a young widowed Jewish woman, by the name of Judith, who murdered an enemy army general, Holofernes, to spare her people from death. I will compare and contrast how the scene has been depicted in rather different ways by each of the artists and the influencing factors that contributed to the overall outcome of both works. I will also be discussing how form and naturalism are portrayed between the two paintings, use of colour, symbolism and religion, as well as the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

In each of the paintings, the figures appear somewhat different to each other, with those in “Judith Slaying Holofernes” looking far more humanistic than that of “Judith with the Head of Holofernes”. In Mantegna’s painting, Judith and her servant, Abra, look statuesque in pose while Judith, as if in pity for her victim, turns her eyes away from the head of Holofernes that she holds above the bag her servant holds open Judith. In Renaissance art,

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